As soon as it was dark and the streets were still, he set
off secretly from the city, accompanied by a very few attendants.
Instead of making use of his ordinary equipage, the parading of which
would have attracted attention to his movements, he had some mules taken
from a neighboring bake-house, and harnessed into his chaise. There were
torch-bearers provided to light the way. The cavalcade drove on during
the night, finding, however, the hasty preparations which had been made
inadequate for the occasion. The torches went out, the guides lost their
way, and the future conqueror of the world wandered about bewildered and
lost, until, just after break of day, the party met with a peasant
who undertook to guide them. Under his direction they made their way to
the main road again, and advanced then without further difficulty to the
banks of the river, where they found that portion of the army which had
been sent forward encamped, and awaiting their arrival.

[Illustration: CROSSING THE RUBICON]

[Sidenote: Caesar at the Rubicon.]
[Sidenote: His hesitation at the river.]

Caesar stood for some time upon the banks of the stream, musing upon the
greatness of the undertaking in which simply passing across it would
involve him. His officers stood by his side. "We can retreat _now_" said
he, "but once across that river and we must go on." He paused for some
time, conscious of the vast importance of the decision, though he
thought only, doubtless, of its consequences to himself. Taking the step
which was now before him would necessarily end either in his realizing
the loftiest aspirations of his ambition, or in his utter and
irreparable ruin. There were vast public interests, too, at stake, of
which, however he probably thought but little. It proved, in the end,
that the history of the whole Roman world, for several centuries, was
depending upon the manner in which the question new in Caesar's mind
should turn.

[Sidenote: Story of the shepherd trumpeter.]

There was a little bridge across the Rubicon at the point where Caesar
was surveying it. While he was standing there, the story is, a peasant
or shepherd came from the neighboring fields with a shepherd's pipe--a
simple musical instrument, made of a reed, and used much by the rustic
musicians of those days. The soldiers and some of the officers gathered
around him to hear him play. Among the rest came some of Caesar's
trumpeters, with their trumpets in their hands. The s